


Mutual Comfort

by psychoroach



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Charlie gets shot, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, but it's in a nightmare for Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21965545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychoroach/pseuds/psychoroach
Summary: Steve and Charlie comfort each other when a thunderstorm ruins both of their nights.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 15
Kudos: 153





	Mutual Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Ignore the pretty awful title, I just got the idea for this fic, and had to get it out of my head. I have so much writing going on, I didn't need it screwing around with my mojo.
> 
> Read, review, kudos!

_"Come on, guys! Let's go, we gotta get a move on!" Steve hauled one of his brothers along as he ran with the others on the unit through the Urozgan mountain side. There was very little cover there, mostly brush and threadbare trees, but he had to get a move on if he wanted them to get out alive. The man he was dragging with him let out a groan and Steve spared him a glance. "Come on, brother, don't give up on me now. I'll get you out of here and back home. You got a girl, huh? Don't make me have to go tell your girl you ain't coming home to her, your family...come on, just a little further."_

_When he tried to remember just where things went wrong, Steve found that he couldn't. He'd been on so many missions as a Navy SEAL that sometimes things blended together, but he knew they had to get out of there to the extraction point before the soldiers chasing them caught up to them. One of his men had already suffered gunshot wounds in places Steve couldn't tell yet, he couldn't afford for them to get any more battered than they were._

_They found a place to hunker down and Steve got word that extraction was five minutes out, making him take a small sigh of relief. He could still hear the persuers coming after them, and knew time was wasting, but there was nothing he could do. He felt like a sitting duck._

_"Uncle Steve?" A small, meek voice cut through the sounds of the gunfire and Steve whipped around, wide eyed, his heart thudding even more in his chest, threatening to break through as he saw Charlie standing there in his green plaid pajams (Danny had a matching pair, which tickled the little boy to pieces), a frown of worry on his face as he held his stuffed melanistic jaguar toy, Moxley, to his chest._

_"Charlie? What are you doing here?" Steve asked._

_The little boy started to answer but was cut off when the gunfire got louder and Steve watched in complete horror as gunshots..._

Steve sat up in his bed with a gasp, his breaths coming out as sharp pants, sweat pouring down his face as he tried to get himself under control, to remind himself it was just a nightmare and not real.

"Uncle Steve?" A voice cut through his panic and Steve looked over at almost the same thing from his dream, except Charlie was standing in the doorway of his bedroom instead of the edge of a foreign country. He remembered that he was keeping an eye on Charlie for the night, because Danny had him for half of the Christmas holiday, but Danny was at the hospital keeping Quinn company as she recovered from appendicitis. He would be home sometime the next day when Tani relieved him. 

"He...hey...buddy." Steve said, trying to get his voice under control. "Did I...did I wake you? I'm sorry." 

"Are you ok?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, guess I had a bad dream." Steve wiped his hands over his face, sighing quietly. 

"It's thunderin', can I sleep with you?" Charlie asked quietly.

"Of course, yeah, come here." Steve pulled the covers back, glad he'd remembered to actually wear pajamas (just plain sweatpants and a tank top, but it still counts as more than he wore when Charlie wasn't there) and he pulled the little boy close, hoping Charlie didn't notice the thudding in his chest. Of course he noticed that Charlie's own chest was thudding and he curled him even closer, rubbing his back. "You really don't like storms, huh?" 

"Not really." He said quietly, tensing when another pop of thunder sounded. Steve could tell by the time between the first pop and the roll after that either the storm was about to be on them, or had already started heading away from them. He couldn't tell yet. "It's too loud, I can't sleep." 

Steve tried to think of anything from his high school science classes, but with his addled brain, he couldn't really remember anything about thunder that he could use, so he just tried to focus on comforting the little boy. 

"Is that why you had a bad dream?" Charlie asked. "Cause the thunder?" 

"Kind of." Steve said, trying to think of how to explain PTSD to a 9 year old. "It...sometimes loud noises that come out of nowhere remind me of things I don't like to think about very much." 

"From your job as a soldier?" Charlie asked innocently. 

Steve fought not to huff out a breath and just settled on rolling his eyes a bit. Danny had the little boy convinced Steve was some kind of modern day GI Joe in his spare time, and Steve didn't have the heart to correct him like he did Danny when Danny was just trying to rile him up.

"Yeah, from that." Steve answered instead. "Sometimes it's...not too fun and I've been through a lot of really bad stuff doing it, that I didn't really want to go through, but didn't have a choice anyway..." 

"Like when I have to get shots?" Charlie asked. 

Steve chuckled. "Yeah exactly like that. You know when I go out on my job as a...soldier...I have to get shots, because I go to a lot of other countries. Sometimes I have to get like 12 at a time." 

"No!" Charlie gasped, gaping up at him. "How do you do that?" 

Steve shrugged a shoulder. "I just tell myself it's something I have to do, and I just try and distract myself by thinking of something else." 

"I'll try that next time." Charlie said quietly. 

"Yeah, you should." Steve said. "Do you think you can get some more sleep now?" 

Charlie yawned, despite obviously trying to hold it in. "I think." 

"Goodnight, buddy." Steve said as Charlie laid his head down on his chest.

"Night, uncle Steve, love you." He said quietly. 

"Love you, too." Steve said, feeling something unfurl in his chest and bloom out in a way Danny would probably call 'gooey'.

The next day he woke up to his bedroom door opening and Steve tensed, blinking his eyes open. He saw Danny standing there, looking rumpled and very tired, but with a small smile on his face.

"Rough night?" Danny asked, obviously knowing that it stormed and that Charlie had an aversion to thunder.

Steve took a breath before he answered diplomatically. "It was, for both of us, but we got through it." 

Danny frowned at him, but didn't say anything at first.

Steve cut him off at the pass. "Go change, you look like you need some sleep and I don't think me and Charlie are ready to get up either." 

"Ok." Danny wandered off and came back in the pajamas that matched Charlie's and Steve smiled as Danny got in on the other side of the little boy, reaching over to put his hand on Steve's side, bracketing Charlie between them. Steve closed his eyes and fell back to sleep pretty easily, feeling a lot better and content at that moment.


End file.
